Daily Bread Archives

September 16, 2023September 18, 2023

Apathetic Slavery

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: ⁶ The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. ⁷ And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ⁸ “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” ~ Isaiah 39:5-8^NIV

When Hezekiah’s life was on the line, he pleaded and begged. He sought God and repented of his sin. There was a change within him because it was his life that was directly affected, but when it came to his descendants being punished for his actions, he didn’t care. His actions would condemn his descendants, but because it wasn’t him, he believed it was a good word. Isn’t this us today?

The spirit and stronghold of apathy has gripped the Church, and it refuses to let go. We don’t care about an issue that’s banging down the doors of our fellow Christians because it isn’t directly affecting us. It isn’t banging down our door right now; we’re not concerned, so we don’t stand up and fight. There is nothing that will destroy the Church like apathy because, through apathy, anything can come in and enslave the Church.

Dear LORD, please give me a heart that cares. A heart that breaks for my fellow Christians. A heart that is never gripped by apathy. Please break my heart for what breaks Yours. Teach me to stand for what’s right, even if it doesn’t directly affect me. Help me to be a more faithful follower each and every day. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Be Not Intimidated

¹⁸ “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? ²⁰ Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” ~ Isaiah 36:18-20^NIV

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded Israel in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Now, his Commander was at the wall speaking to Judah so that he might send Fear into their hearts. Isn’t that how the enemy works? He comes to you and starts speaking with the utmost confidence, “Did you see God save that one?” “Did you see God intervene on their behalf?” And if we’re not careful, Fear will walk right into our nation through a door that we opened for him.

See, the enemy will show you where other people failed. Where other people fell short. Where other people missed the mark. Then he’ll ask, why would you be any different? Why would God save you? There’s nothing special about you. But you have to remember that he’s the Father of Lies, so his minions that come to you to harass and intimidate you are well-versed in his lies as well. Don’t believe them.

When the lies of the enemy come your way, turn to God. Remind Him and yourself of those verses He promised you. Remind Him and yourself that you are His, and He alone can save and defend you. Stand strong and don’t give in to the intimidation of the enemy.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Not Intimidated.

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Seeking Holiness

³ God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. ⁴ Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— ⁵ not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. ⁶ Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6^NLT

Paul tells us that God has an overall will for each and every one of us, and it’s not just to believe and be saved. It’s that we change and set off our filthy rags and seek Holiness. How do we do this?

By keeping away from sexual sin. Remember that every other sin is committed outside the body, but the sin of sexual immorality is a sin against the offender’s own body. So, keep away from it.

God wants us to be in control of our own bodies. Therefore, any addiction that you may have, from pornography to alcohol to cigarettes, are to be avoided at all cost if you want your relationship with God to grow and produce fruit.

If you’re diligent to do these things, God will hear you and answer your prayers.

Dear LORD, please give me self-control that I may overcome all sexual immorality in all of its forms and deceit. Teach me Your ways that I might grow in You. Help me to crucify my flesh daily that I might never be a slave to sin again. Teach me how to overcome through You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen

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Remain Faithful In The Silence

¹⁵Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.” ¹⁸Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.” ¹⁹When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. ~ Exodus 32:17-19^NIV

Joshua was chosen to lead God’s people after Moses. Maybe it was because he hadn’t been defiled by the Golden Calf. Maybe it was because he never lost faith and was waiting outside the camp for Moses, while everyone else allowed their own fears to take over and cause them so that they sinned. Joshua seemed to never lose faith in the LORD regardless of how others around him acted and/or reacted.

It’s so easy to fall into the traps and snares of Fear when you’re going through a season of dwelling in the unknown. See, Joshua knew where Moses was. He was on the mountain. Joshua knew what Moses was doing. He was speaking to God, receiving the commands. Joshua even knew what he was supposed to be doing. He was to remain waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain. Nevertheless, he didn’t know how long that would take. He didn’t know the time Moses would return.

If they all knew the time Moses was going to come down the mountain, then they wouldn’t have been so frightened because they had a set time and place as comfort for them. The thing is, God doesn’t always work in the comfort of the known. Sometimes, He only gives you enough that you’re in a place where you have to whole-heartedly without any reservations trust in Him. Many of us are right here. We know that we have to wait, but what do we do while we wait? We pray.

Moses was a type of Christ. He was a deliverer. If we’re in the same position as Joshua, which we all are because we are all awaiting the return of Christ, whose exact date of His return is unknown, what do we do while we wait? We win souls. We preach and teach the Gospel. We stay awake. We cry out, ‘Come, Jesus, come.’ Some of us are waiting for Moses to come down off the mountain in a specific area of our call. It’s a season of waiting for a response that we don’t know when it will come. What do we do? We teach and preach the Gospel. We make disciples of all nations. We seek the face of God. We fulfill the requirements of the call that is plain to us. We pray for the answer to come.

Dear LORD, when You remain silent during a season of our lives, help me to remain at the foot of the mountain. Help me to remain worshipping in Your presence, or at the very least, as close as I can get to Your presence. Help me to not be defeated or be afraid. Help me to not be overwhelmed or overcome by Fear; instead, help me to be perfected in Your perfect love so that Fear has no hold on me. Help me to remain faithful in the silence. Help me to remain faithful regardless of what season I’m in. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Bondage of Unforgiveness

²¹Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²²Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” ~ Matthew 18:21-22

Jesus was just teaching on forgiveness. He said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. If he doesn’t listen, take one or two more. If he still doesn’t listen, tell it to the church, and if he still doesn’t listen, then treat him as you would a gentile or a tax collector.”

Then Peter gets this brilliant idea. Well, if he doesn’t listen to the church, then I can take matters into my own hands. So, he asked Jesus, “What is my limit to forgive? Is it seven times?” Peter’s probably thinking, “Yeah, it has to be seven times; on the eighth, I will draw my sword and chop off an ear.” But Jesus doesn’t agree with that logic. He says, “No, Peter, not seven times, but seventy-seven times seventy-seven times.”

In other words, Jesus is explaining that forgiveness is like love; it’s a debt that can never be repaid. If we are required to love even our enemies, then we have to forgive them first and foremost. Forgiveness is a prerequisite to love.

Dear LORD, please soften my heart. Please help me to forgive all who have hurt me. Help me to forgive all who have done me wrong. Help me not to remain a slave to the bondage of unforgiveness. Help me to love others the way You love them. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Do Not Detest The Shepherds

¹ Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” ²He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh. ³Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?” “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” ⁴They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.” ⁵Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, ⁶and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.” ~ Genesis 47:1-6^NIV

Joseph was in the land of Egypt, second in command only to Pharaoh when his brothers showed up. God had made a way for all of His people to be saved from the famine by turning the evil that Joseph’s brothers did to him into good for all people. Pharaoh saw who the real God was because of Joseph and all that God did through him, yet Pharaoh was still spiritually blind. When Joseph’s family came to the land of Egypt, he told them to tell Pharaoh they were shepherds so that Pharaoh might allow them to stay in the land of Goshen because shepherds were detestable to Egyptians. Now, I want you to think about this, shepherds were detestable to Egyptians, but Pharaoh still wanted any skilled shepherd to take care of his flocks. Isn’t that how the world is today?

The things of the Church are detestable and offensive to them, but when things go wrong, they ask for the prayers of the Church. This isn’t a characteristic that strictly affects the world; the Church today is inundated with this characteristic. We’re offended when we’re told that certain actions are sinful. We’re offended when we’re told that certain actions/illnesses are spiritual. But we want prayer. We want counseling, but we don’t want deliverance. We have become Pharaoh. We have become like the Egyptians; the shepherds have become detestable to us. Why? Because Jesus is the Good Shepherd. When we are offended by what Jesus has said, we are really being offended by the Good Shepherd Himself.

Dear LORD, please help me to not be offended by You. Help me to not be offended by Truth but to always seek it out. Break my heart for what breaks Your heart. Teach me Your ways and write Your laws on my heart that I might not sin against You. Help me to love You the way that You deserve. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Time of Trouble

²² In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz. ²³ For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. ²⁴ And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵ In every city of Judah he made high places to make offerings to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers. ~ 2 Chronicles 28:22-25

In his deepest time of distress, King Ahaz didn’t seek help from the LORD his God; he sought out the gods of the nations that defeated him. He forgot the LORD who brought his fathers out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery. When you’re in trouble, who do you go to? Is it the LORD or another avenue?

Who or what we go to in our time of trouble determines who our god is. It determines who we serve. King Ahaz chose the wrong god, and he died in his sin. Never did it say that he repented. Never did it say he was restored. Never did it say he was saved. Instead, it was the ruin of him and all of Israel. Our actions affect more than just us. It affects those around us, just as King Ahaz’s decision affected all of Israel.

Dear LORD, help me to always turn to You in times of trouble and distress. Help me to always seek Your righteous right hand to uphold me. Teach me to never lean on anyone but You. Teach me to have faith in You and trust You with all that’s within me. Help me to be a light in this dark world by letting my light shine before all who I come into contact with. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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We Fall

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. ¹⁴Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master… ~ Jeremiah 3:13-14a

If we acknowledge our own guilt and confess that we have rebelled against the LORD our God and that we have placed things above Him and not obeyed His word, and if we will only return to Him with a repentant heart, He will forgive us. Why?

He’s a good, good Father. If it could be said that God had a weakness, which He does not, but if He did, it would have to be His love and mercy for mankind.

God loves us so much that He is willing to:

Forgive
And forgive
And forgive
And then forgive again

But make no mistake, God is also a God of vengeance and a God of justice. He will not leave the guilty unpunished, nor will He let the lawbreaker go free. Please understand that we were all guilty; we were all transgressors of God’s law (Proverbs 11:21), but because of His great mercy, He has paid our debt Himself for us and has forgiven us by the shedding of His own blood.

Now, He expects us to turn from evil, even from the very appearance of evil, and turn to Him with a whole heart.

Dear LORD, please help me to remove all iniquity from within me. Help me to flee evil and all of the ways of the world. If my foot stumbles, catch me that I may not fall, but help me to my feet. Teach me Your ways. Strengthen my spirit man that my flesh may not control me. Help me to never think that I am perfect and, therefore, do not need to grow. Show me my flaws and help me to remove each and every one of them. Thank you for always forgiving me and being patient and kind towards me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Refuse To Let Go

²⁴So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. ²⁸Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” ²⁹Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. ³⁰So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” ³¹The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. ³²Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon. ~ Genesis 32:24-30^NIV

Christians want the blessing but don’t wanna wrestle with God for them. Jacob wrestled all night with God and refused to let Him go until God blessed him. Christians today, myself included, are spiritually lazy. We struggle to read our Bibles once a week, let alone once a day. We can’t even pray for an hour without being distracted or falling asleep. Our spirit man is so weak he can’t fight the flesh. See, if our spirit man is too weak to wrestle with God for our blessing, then we’ll not only fall into temptation, but we’ll bring a curse upon ourselves and miss our blessing.

God doesn’t just give us everything He has in store for us. He expects us to fight for it. We have to prove ourselves worthy servants of Christ, unshakeable and unwilling to give up on the promise and/or blessing. The Promised Land was promised to the people of Israel, but those who refused to fight and instilled fear into the others, they didn’t see it. Only those who had faith. Only those who refused to give up. Only those who have held tightly on to the LORD and refused to let go.

Many of us are there. It’s closing in on midnight. The LORD is telling you to let go. Your eyes are seeing the Nephilim. There’s so much going against you, even your certain things seem to fail, but this is the time you hang on even stronger. This is the time you refuse to let go. You have to force your spirit man to fight. You have to feed him daily. You have to exercise him. You have to refuse to give up.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Refuse To Let Go.

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Seek the Eternal

¹¹But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, ¹⁴to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ 1 Timothy 6:11-14

Paul wrote several letters, each unique and focusing on the struggles of the recipient. There was no one-size-fits-all. Each letter was personalized in order to build up and instruct the brother(s)/sister(s) on the receiving end. For instance, he instructs Timothy to “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession.”

Paul understood that they only had one opportunity to get it right. One opportunity to build up treasure in heaven that lasts for all eternity. People work so hard here on earth, building up treasure and wealth that someone else will get instead of building up true wealth that lasts forever.

Jesus warns us not to work for wealth that fades but to build true wealth so that we will have a good eternity (Matthew 6:19-21). In other words, don’t waste your time working for fool’s gold. The only thing you will have in eternity is what you send on ahead. If you send nothing on ahead of you, you will have nothing.

Well, I’m sure you will have something, but nothing compared to what God has in store for you. We need to work now to build up our treasure. Don’t miss out on the best and most profitable investment ever, YOUR ETERNITY!

Paul understood the gravity of the situation when he told the Corinthian church that he worked harder, was imprisoned more, and had more hardships than the other apostles. Paul was sure of what he had done. He did not waste his time with useless things. He did not get distracted by temporal wealth and position. He was hyper-focused on the eternal.

We only have this one life to do God’s will and impact the world. We can’t waste our time working to gain the world. The harvest is ready, but the laborers are few. These temporal things won’t last forever. We can’t take that into eternity, but what we can take into eternity is what we do for the LORD. Each soul we impact for the better, each life we change, each soul we harvest, each seed we plant, and each trial we make it through is building up eternal treasure. Don’t be distracted by the things of the world. Instead, focus on the things of God and His Kingdom.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek the Eternal.

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Category: Daily Bread

Apathetic Slavery

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